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AUGUST 4, 2023
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
SPORTS
ANNUAL WHITE MARLIN OPEN Week-long tournament, now in its 50th year, kicks off Monday. Find all the info starting on page 67
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Study group created for sportsplex Mayor, council seek advice from 31-member body
HUNTER HINE/OCEAN CITY TODAY
LOOKING UP TO LAW ENFORCEMENT
The Ocean City Police Department hosted the 40th National Night Out on West Lagoon Field at Northside Park on Tuesday evening. Pictured is Barry Neeb, who does OCPD training and recruitment, coaching baby Rhys Bertino in cornhole. Rhys’s mother, Amanda, also works in police recruitment.
By Mallory Panuska Managing Editor (Aug. 4, 2023) Thirty-one people with strong local ties, connections and interests have been appointed to discuss the next steps for construction of a sports complex somewhere in Worcester County. At a work session Tuesday, City Council members voted unanimously to approve a request from Mayor Rick Meehan to approve names for a task force to consider and make recommendations for the potential project. “I think what’s been indicated by the council is it’s time for Ocean City to take the lead,” Meehan said of the project, which died at the county level See PANEL Page 7
Big fish, big money, WMO at 50 By Hunter Hine Staff Writer (Aug. 4, 2023) He came out unendingly and water poured from his sides. He was bright in the sun and his head and back were dark purple and in the sun the stripes on his sides showed wide and a light lavender. His sword was as long as a baseball bat and tapered like a rapier and he rose his full length from the water and then re-entered it, smoothly, like a diver and the old man saw the great scythe-blade of his tail go under and the line commenced to race out. — From the “Old Man and the Sea,” by Ernest Hemingway, 1952. *** With “The Old Man and the Sea,” Ernest Hemingway captured audiences with the sport, beauty, commitment and sacrifice that all comes with hooking a monstrous billfish. Though Hemingway wrote about hand-lining a blue
marlin off Cuba, the fact that Ocean City’s White Marlin Open has endured and grown for half a century seemingly proves a similar allure to chasing white marlin — and other big-time sport fish — off the mid-Atlantic coast. Jim Motsko of Ocean City and Pete Boinis, then an Ocean City marina owner, built on that attraction when they produced the first Open in 1974. That year, 57 boats registered to chance a slice of the $20,000 in guaranteed prize money. The winner was Vince Sorenson with a 68.5 pounder. Aug. 7 marks the beginning of the 50th annual White Marlin Open, and in the decades since the inaugural competition, Motsko has turned it into the largest billfish tournament in the world, both in participation and payouts, according to Forbes magazine and numerous blue water fishing organizations. “White marlin come by, white marlin, blue marlin, tuna. All the pelagic fish come by Ocean City in their yearly migration, and Ocean City had been known for the See MOTSKO Page 69
PHOTO COURTESY JIM MOTSKO
Jim Motsko hands a check to the first White Marlin Open winner Vince Sorenson in 1974.
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AUGUST 4, 2023
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A sign at Northside Park designates an area in which people are allowed to smoke. Council members are trying to eliminate smoking in all public parks because staff say people are not following the guidelines.
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Ocean City advances ban on smoking in all public parks By Mallory Panuska Managing Editor (Aug. 4, 2023) As smoking laws become more strict across the resort with the legalization of cannabis, it may soon be illegal to light up in any Ocean City park. At a work session Tuesday, council members voted 6-1, with Councilman Peter Buas opposed, to advance an ordinance to outlaw smoking areas in all public parks. Rec and Parks Director Susan Petito said the request derived from people not following the rules of designated smoking areas at Northside Park. She said two areas, which allow smoking within 15 feet of erected signs, were added in 2015 to accommodate smokers who participate in weekend tournaments. But the rules have been difficult to enforce. “It’s time for us to make a clean,
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across-the-board statement … that there’s no smoking in parks in Ocean City,” Petito said. Councilman Tony DeLuca asked whether members of the Recreation and Parks Committee signed off on the proposed change. He also inquired about where people in the park will go to smoke if the ordinance passes. Councilman John Gehrig, who chairs the rec and parks committee, said members informally discussed the matter and came to a consensus to recommend a full ban of smoking in parks to council for approval. Petito clarified that if the measure passes, anyone who wants to smoke in a park must completely leave the premises. Council members’ vote moves the request for the ban, which would change the original ordinance, to a first reading.
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